


Animorphs #48.5 The Return's Ending

by MineDance



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 03:36:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17614667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MineDance/pseuds/MineDance
Summary: Rachel doesn't know what to do. She's left with the choice of killing David the Animorph, now trapped in the body of a rat.





	1. Chapter 26

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone,  
> The reason why I'm doing this is because some people weren't happy with the fact the book ends on a cliffhanger. I wrote this fanfic because I want to make it more complete.  
> To fully understand this work, you will have to read Animorphs #48: The Return first.  
> I hope you enjoy. This is my first A03 fanfic, and I'm kind of nervous! But we'll see how this turns out.  
> I imagine this will be kind of short... ;) Which is a good thing, since I'm sure you've got more to do than this!

 

> “A young girl sitting knees-up in the sun, staring at a white rat.  
>  It would be hard to believe the entire fate of the planet depended on that girl.  
>  A girl who wanted to do the right thing.  
>  But who had no idea at all what that was... 

<C'mon, Rachel, please kill me,> David moaned, still clutched in my fist. Yuck, he smelled like he'd been in the sewer! Which he had. <I can't live like this anymore!>

I thought about that.  _He didn't want to live like that anymore?_

No. He didn't. 

But I didn't want to kill him. Hadn't I just proved to Crayak that I _wasn't_ a psychopathic killer?

But I couldn't kill him. I just  _couldn't_ kill him. And yet, his words echoed in my head...  

> “ <If there's any humanity left in you at all, please kill me.>

Was David right? Was there any humanity left in me at all? 

Yes. 

There was.

I don't know how the puzzle piece plunked together like that. But suddenly, out of the blue, I thought up a plan. A plan to make David's life as a rat more enjoyable. 

I blinked through my tears. I wasn't crying anymore. Because I thought of a plan. An insane plan. A plan that would make Jake and Marco totally freak if they found out.

But a plan.

"David, you said you don't want to live anymore because you don't want to live a rat's life, do you?" I asked. "You know--eating garbage and living in a Dumpster."

<Stop,> David interrupted. <You're bringing back bad memories--being a rat was--is-- _horrifying_. That's why I want you to kill me.>

Suddenly I was mad. Weird, I was tears and snot two minutes earlier. I told him something. Something that I'd always thought.

"What is it with you people who want to end your life?!?" I yelled at him. "Stop giving me that crap--even when life seems hopeless, isn't it better to live with _some_ hope instead of zero?"

As you can tell, I'm a fierce believer in ending suicides.

David said nothing. <There isn't any hope when you're a rat,> he said after a long silence.

"You aren't listening to me!" I said. "I thought of a plan--a plan to make your life more enjoyable."

Well,  _that_ snapped him to attention. <How?>

"I'm going to take you home," I said. "To my house. Which is gonna be your  _new_ home." 

<You're--taking me  _home_?>

"Yeah. And don't complain, because your other choice is to go back to your rat's life."

<I don't want that,> David muttered.

 _Neither would I, being trapped as a rat_ , I thought. But instead I said, "I thought maybe."

<So--so what do you mean, "take me home"?> David demanded. <What are you going to do with me?>

"You're going to be my pet," I said. "My pet rat."

<"My pet rat",> David echoed. <Why are you even doing this to me? You hate me.>

That's true.  _Why was I doing this?_ David is my sworn enemy. And now I was  _helping_ him.

"I... I'm not sure," I said uncertainly. "But I guess I am doing this. However, you can live with me as me pet under  _one condition_ \--if you thought-speak to anyone other then, or do  _anything_ to reveal our secrets, you are going back to your life as a rat. Opposed to your deluxe life as Rachel's Pet Rat. Am I clear?"

David's throat twitched. He was swallowing. He had a lump in his throat; the lump that appears in there when you're upset and aren't sure what to do.

 _Like me_ , I thought.  _I had a lump in_ my  _throat too, deciding whether or not to kill David._

"So... do we have a deal?" I asked.

David seemed to think for a long time. He obviously wasn't sure what to do with his choice, as I did mine.

Finally, he answered.

<Rachel,> David said.

"Yeah."

<Let's do it.>


	2. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rachel morphs to bald eagle and flies home with her ex-enemy.

_Let's do it_.

David had used my catchphrase. The catchphrase that Marco always teased me about. The catchphrase I used before one of our dangerous, insane, suicidal missions.

"You sure you want to do this?" I asked again.

<Sure,> David said. <Why not? What better life do I have at this point? As a rat, all I have ahead of me is eating everything in the Dumpster's behind the local Wendy's. I want a better life. This is the only choice I have.>

"What would you do if you didn't have that choice?" I asked harshly.

David said nothing. I don't even think _he_ wanted to know.

I began to morph to bald eagle.

<Whoa, whoa!> David yelled. <What're you  _doing_?>

"This is going toiieee beeeeee--" I started to say, but then my mouth changed and stretched out into a bald eagle's beak. As soon as I could use thought-speak, I finished my sentence: <\--our ride home.>

<What?!> David yelled. <How are you going to get me home?>

<I'm going to carry you in my talons,> I said. I had almost completed the morph. I was ninety percent bald eagle. The only thing that wasn't right were my eyes. They looked human, still. 

At last my eyes darkened and became rounder. I had completed the morph. 

<You're going to carry me?> David cried. <Oh, no no no no no no...>

<Oh, yes,> I said. <Definitely.>

<No way!> David cried. <I'm already freaked by your eagle morph. You can't do that to me! The rat in me is gonna freak me out!> 

<Well,> I said, <I guess you'll have to deal with it.>

I flew up into the air. Caught a nice thermal.

David then did something that was pure rat: he ran away from me, the predator, the bald eagle. But I had him: I swooped low towards him, got close to the ground, and nabbed him with my talons. Then I caught another thermal and flew up, up, up.

<Aaaaaahhhhhh!> David yelled.

<Oh, stop it,> I scolded. < _You've_ been a bird too. A golden eagle, even. You've been this high up before.>

<Noooo!> David screamed. <Not as a  _rat_! My rat brain is freaking me out so much that it's making my sane human brain rattled as well. It keeps telling me I'm going to be eaten.>

<I'm not going to eat you, okay?> I told him sternly.

David whined and screamed and panicked for a little while longer. Then I tuned him out. I didn't want to hear all that. 

Eventually he calmed down, and said: <I think I'm better now.>

<You sure?> I asked him.

<Yeah,> David said. <I just have to get through all the fear first. Then I'm going to feel better.>

I smiled internally. I don't know why I felt better now that David was feeling better, I just did.

<So, Rachel,> David asked after a few seconds of silence. <Is your mom going to be okay with a pet rat?>

Oh, God!

I just realized: Would  _Mom be okay with a pet rat? She kind of freaked when I put that rat in the trash for her this morning._

But then I realized:  _Yeah, she would be._ Because back when Cassie and I did that science project for school which Cassie had to make up for, I was the one who kept Courtney, the rat we used for our project and the rat I had acquired. Mom was okay with that. She didn't mind rats as long as they were pets.

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't realize I dropped David. 

<Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!> 

He was falling to the ground.

And on the ground was a nearby tomcat... 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I guess I'm continuing this. Wow. I thought I'd given up by now! ;P  
> If you ask me, this chapter is much better than the last one: much better writing. The first one I sort of dashed off so I could say I started the story. This one is much better in my opinion. I edited the first one to make it better.

**Author's Note:**

> This starts at chapter 26 because the book ends on chapter 25.


End file.
